PFAW Statement on Senate Vote to Confirm Eric Murphy: The Most Shameful Way to Commemorate Bloody Sunday

In response to the Senate’s vote today to confirm Eric Murphy to a lifetime seat on the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, People For the American Way Executive Vice President Marge Baker issued the following statement:

“54 years ago today, police violently attacked civil rights activists in a peaceful protest march on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Those marchers were demanding that their right to vote—and the voting rights of all Americans—be respected. Today, Republicans in the Senate commemorated that attack in the most shameful way possible: by voting to give a lifetime seat on the federal bench to someone who fought to delete thousands of eligible voters from the voting rolls in Ohio.

“Eric Murphy’s work to disenfranchise Ohio’s black and other minority voters would be disturbing enough on its own, but it’s only the beginning of his long resume of extremism. He’s led attacks on public education and fought all the way to the Supreme Court to prevent same sex couples from accessing the legal protections that only marriage can afford. Murphy isn’t someone we can trust to understand the impact the law has on the lives of all Americans. He certainly doesn’t deserve a lifetime seat on our federal courts.”

People For the American Way is a progressive advocacy organization founded to fight right-wing extremism and defend constitutional values including free expression, religious liberty, equal justice under the law, and the right to meaningfully participate in our democracy. Learn more: http://www.pfaw.org.